Detroit Free Press Columnist

Only the octogenarians among us can recall the last time football and baseball starred equally in Detroit at the same time.

FDR was in his first term. The Great Depression suffocated the nation's economic spirit. But there was reason for smiles in 1935. Both the Tigers and Lions not only advanced to the postseason but won their first league championships.

Since then, both have had limited success, but never at the same time.

Until, perhaps, now.

One more Lions win, and it'll mark the first time they and the Tigers made the playoffs in the same season in 76 years. One more win stamps an exclamation point on uncharacteristic range of local sports achievement for 2011:

• The Tigers won their first division championship in 24 years.

• Justin Verlander became the first starting pitcher to be named AL Most Valuable Player in 25 years.

• Both Michigan State and Michigan won 10 regular-season football games, and both basketball programs advanced to the NCAA tournament, an unprecedented grand slam for one calendar year in this state.

• And we mustn't forget Wayne State's unlikely run to the Division II football national championship game.

But the Lions finally returning to the playoffs probably would mean the most to this region because they're responsible for the most emotional suffering -- acres of perished dreams of even simple mediocrity.

Christmas Eve is the backdrop for the biggest Lions game in Ford Field's 10 seasons. A suddenly impressive Chargers team comes to town, still clinging to hope that it can snatch the AFC West championship from Denver. Win, and the Lions guarantee only their eighth double-digit-victory season in 78 years.

But it was a more reserved Jim Schwartz on Monday. Nobody popped champagne corks on the flight home from Oakland on Sunday night. He assured reporters that nobody is celebrating anything, although, considering the regression of wild-card competitors Chicago and the New York Giants, it's difficult to imagine the Lions blowing their two-game lead with two games left.

Everyone's also attempting to define exactly what they are. Explosive? Opportunistic? What they are is resilient.

The NFL is a comeback league, especially with more relaxed offensive rules. According to Newsday, teams have overcome 14-point deficits to win 16 times this season -- one shy of the league record. Just two Sundays ago, five teams -- Atlanta, Arizona, Jacksonville, Houston and the Giants -- erased 12-point deficits for victories, the most in a single day in league history.

The Lions' late-game magic is more rule than exception.

"You're seeing some outstanding quarterbacks in the National Football League," Schwartz said in attempting an explanation for the leaguewide rash of thrilling fourth-quarter comebacks.

Some things are better without deep analysis. Those who still deeply care about this franchise are better off simply enjoying a rare Detroit football gift under the Christmas tree.